I dont remember saying "I do" ...

The other day I was discussing with my good friend, Hannah, how housesitting Scruffy could be likened to a bad marriage.

Note: I said bad marriage. I am not cynical or jaded in my views on marriage and I mean no disrespect to the state in general.

He snores all night and steals more than his fair share of the doona covers and then demands that I get out of bed and make him breakfast. I have to cook and clean for him and he never says thank you. If he wants something I have to drop whatever I am doing and attend to it or he will never shut up about it. He shows me no affection when I am not busy, but the instant I want to go out and spend some time with my friends he gets clingy and needy. He complains about my driving even though he is always wanting me to take him somewhere new. When we are out somewhere together, I have to be the strong one and protect him not the other way around. If I don't give him exactly what he wants for dinner he refuses to eat it. If we get a visitor he will completely ignore me and spend all his time with them, but he complains when I ignore him. He is constantly in the way when I am in the kitchen, and then seems to wonder why it is taking me so long to get him his dinner.

And I don't even get a shiny ring to show for it.

Scruffy

This is Scruffy, the dog that I am currently housesitting.

He is the exact opposite of tall, dark, and handsome (small, white, and kinda ugly).

He snores and steals half the bed.

He steals my dirty socks and drags them all around the house.

He gets very hyperactive at night before bed, right when I am feeling anything but hyperactive.

He is scared of the dark :)

He loses his toys under the furniture and then barks constantly until you get them out again.

He demands your attention when you are busy doing something else.

He cant allow you to move more than 2 steps without having to follow you.

But despite all this, I am still enjoying his company. I still want a dog of my own - just a much more sensible one.

Youth Allowance

The other day I heard just a snippet of a news story on the radio saying that the government are making changes to the eligibility criteria for getting youth allowance. The news said that one of the changes is that the age of independence will be brought down from 25 to 22. That would make me independent and, therefore, eligible for some of Uncle Kevin's money.

I haven't been able to find out any more about it, though, so I was wondering if any of you have been watching/listening to the news more faithfully than I have and are any more informed.

Its a very exciting prospect that perhaps Uncle Kevin will pay my bills while I do my honours and give my very generous and longsuffering parents a bit of a break. They could go on holiday or something instead of paying for all my bills - maybe a cruise to the Caribbean?

So, anyone have any info?

More details...

Ok, so I have been told that my last post was a little lacking in details. The job that I so happily told you all about is a part time (3 days a week) job as a sales assistant at Bakers Delight. This should help me make a little money and fill in my time until I start honours in August. I hope to continue working for at least the first part of my honours project while I am doing my literature review.

I started training for work yesterday. There was a bit of a stuff up as one of the bakers slept in and they were behind getting the products out on the shelves so my boss was a bit stressed. Eventually it settled down and she was able to train me. I did a four hour shift and by the end of it I was starting to get the hang of everything and enjoy it. The people I will be working with seem really nice and fun to be around (some of the bakers seem a little scary, but they finish really early) so I think I'm going to enjoy working there (and I know I am going to enjoy the money).

Last night Mum phoned and asked me "How's the newest employee of Baker's Delight?" and I replied (quite truthfully) "Tired" (from sleeping in a strange bed and sharing it with Scruffy, not from my measly 4 hour shift), but Mum misheard and thought I said "fired" :) Well, I thought it was funny, anyway.

I have a job.
A real life job.
Where I will be payed money and everything.
And I start on Monday.

I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. I have a job. - That's the song that is going around and around in my head.

I'm Moving House

Emma is moving house! Well, temporarily anyway.

I already live in two places for the past few years, but for the next month or so I'm going to be adding a third. That will make a fourth place around Tassie that I have a bedroom. That's pretty weird, isn't it?

Anyway, I'm moving to the Eastern Shore to housesit and dogsit for my Aunt & Uncle while they are adventuring on the mainland. This will actually be the third set of Aunts & Uncles I have housesat for. I housesat, fishsat, and catsat for Ben & Bec with Rob, then I housesat, dogsat, catsat, and horsesat for Nathan & Julie by myself. Now I will be housesitting and dogsitting for Sabine & Charlie (Well, mostly for Sabine as Charlie doesn't really live there. He lives on the farm). I don't think most people get to housesit this much. I am unusual, though, I guess.

The house is the complete opposite of my apartment - its got lots of rooms, is constantly heated by 2 heatpumps and a heater (which never get turned off - how awesome is that!), a tv in every room (well, it has at least 3 that I know of), Austar in the living room, a huge collection of DVDs, and (this bit is really exciting) a fridge that actually works. Oh, and I forgot to mention the fact that there is a cleaner and a gardener. All I really have to do is keep Scruffy, the Shitzu Maltese cross, company. Even though he is only about a quarter of the size of the kind of dog that I want, I am actually really looking forward to being able to take him for walks.

So, come visit me in my temporary home. I won't be able to leave Hobart for the next month or so, and I'm going to need the company to fill up the huge house.

Typical, boring girl

I have recently discovered that I am more of a typical, boring girl than I thought. This discovery hasn't exactly pleased me, but I figure that it could be worse (I am actually a girl, after all).

So how did I suddenly come by this discovery? Well, after I posted about my dream last week I spent a little time thinking about who were my favourite actors. And it didn't take me long to find a common theme amongst my favourites - they were all tall, dark, and handsome (surprise, surprise) and they all play bad boy characters.

Yes, I have a soft spot for bad boys. How much more female could I get!?!

Currently, I have a bigger soft spot for one actor than any other. Who might that be? Well, of course it is the tallest, darkest, and most handsome - and of course, the baddest - Richard Armitage (Aka Sir Guy of Gisbourne).

And seriously, who wouldn't have a soft spot for a guy that looks like this?


And that's without the black leather and the dark eyeliner :)

Well, anyway I'll try to concentrate and finish my little story. You all know about my recent adventures watching Shakespeare productions. I have decided that I like some of the comedies, but I don't enjoy the tragedies so I kept putting off watching Macbeth knowing it to be one of the most tragic of the tragedies. Eventually, though, I did watch it. For Macbeth I decided to watch a modernised version made a couple of years ago rather than one of the traditional BBC productions as it had been recommended to me by a friend.

So I sat down to watch it, fully expecting to decide it was as unenjoyable as the rest of the tragedies - and I would have been right, too, except for one thing. Richard Armitage was in it!

I nearly fell of the couch when I saw him and, while he wasn't one of the main characters, he was in it enough to make it almost bearable. I wouldn't have put off watching it for so long if I'd known he was in it :) I'm such a girl!

Such a typical, boring female!

Twilight

Ok, so I watched Twilight a few weeks back, but I am only now getting around to reviewing it. That should give you a big clue as to what I thought about it - if it was exceptional in any way (good or bad) I would have probably been in a much greater hurry to review it.

You all know that I have a softspot for vampires so this could have been a movie I would fall in love with, but I didn't. While I enjoyed the gothic darkness of the filming and the use of 'guyliner' , the storyline and characters were utterly predictable - too predictable. I enjoyed watching the movie, but I'm in no hurry to watch it again, buy the DVD, or recommend it to my friends.

The success of the movie has been in its appeal to teenage girls - it has the perfect formula to appeal to teenage girls - An ordinary girl struggling to fit into a new town and a mysterious (not to mention tall, dark, and handsome) boy that are immediately drawn to each other. Their love is intense, forbidden, and dangerous - exactly what teenage girls are drawn to. I'm sure that if I was still 14 I would absolutely be a part of Twilight mania, but as an adult I'm not. I do quite like the movie posters and the art from the movie, though.

I give it three stars ***

Tell them their dreamin'...

Dreams are strange things, aren't they. Sometimes you can dream about things and have no idea where it could have come from or why your subconscious would want to bring it up. Often I dream about saving the world, or at least part of it, from some bad guy. Especially after watching some of the tv shows that I have been entertained by recently.

Last night I watched an episode of Firefly while getting ready for bed so I would have expected that any dreams I might have to pertain to that in some way. Or they might have something to do with the book I am currently reading.

But if my dreams were that simply explained, would I be blogging about them now?
A clue: No (Couldn't resist that one. Sorry if you don't understand the joke - I know that at least some of you will, though).

Last night's dream (the one that I remember anyway) took place at the AFI awards (Australian Film Industry). I don't know why I was there, but it seems I won some kind of a competition or something. As an extra bonus I was escorted all evening by two well known gentlemen: Hugh Jackman and Eric Bana. Now I don't know about you, but I am personally very impressed by my subconscious in this instance; it managed to come up with a credible scenario for Hugh and Eric to be in the same place at the same time (although, it was not so credible that I would be there), and it even managed to remember that they were called the AFI awards. What fascinates me is the fact that it went to all this trouble to put me in a room with these two gentlemen when, although I think they are both quite lovely, they by no means top my list of favourite males.

As for who does top my list of favourite males - that's a story for another time :)

A little clarification...

I thought that I should clarify a few things for those of you who are still unaware of what I now plan to do with my immediate future. I am now planning to do an Honours degree starting at the end of July. I am looking for part time work to fill in my time until then. I would prefer a job in retail/customer service - the kind of job you can turn up and do and then go home and forget all about it.

I will have two joint supervisors, one from the university and one from Birds Australia. My honours research will focus on two species of shorebird, the Hooded Plover and the Red Cap Plover (unless something happens and my project changes). They are both quite cute little species of bird and I'm sure I will enjoy spending my time on a beach somewhere with them.

So everyone, say hello to my new little friends:

The Hooded Plover

And the Red Cap Plover

Romeo and Juliet

Sometime before I was born, the BBC set themselves the task of filming each of Shakespeare's many plays. The Tasmanian library now owns most, if not all, of these productions on DVD, and, since I am not otherwise employed at present, I have decided to watch the most famous among them (such as Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, and, of course, Romeo and Juliet).

At this point I would like to pass on a little advice to you: If you plan to get a series of DVDs from the library, don't place holds on them all on the same day or they are likely to all turn up at once (and three hours of full Shakespearean English is enough for one day, trust me).

I started my Shakespearean plays with Romeo and Juliet. Of course, I was already familiar with the storyline and I have watched another version of it (the Leonardo DiCaprio version back when I thought he was gorgeous - quite a long time ago). This was the first time I have seen it the way Shakespeare wrote it - as a play, in full Shakespearean language and garb.

I know many people consider Romeo and Juliet as one of the greatest love stories ever told, if not the greatest, but I'm afraid that I strongly disagree. While it is no secret that Shakespeare is not my favourite playwright (Oscar Wilde is), this is not the reason I don't like Romeo and Juliet (in fact, I quite like some of his other plays), nor is the complicated language; it is the storyline.

The story basically goes that two families hate each other over some quarrel long ago, and the son of one family meets the daughter of the other family at a mask ball and they "fall in love". They then (with the help of a priest of questionable morals) secretly marry only a few hours after they meet because they are so enamored with each other's beauty. A rather complicated lot of dialogue and sword fight then occurs, the end result of which is that Romeo kills Juliet's cousin and has to flee the city. Juliet's parents, who don't know that she is already married to Romeo, arrange for her to marry another man. Juliet again enlists the help of the priest to obtain a medication that will make her appear as though she is dead in order to fake her own death the night before her wedding. The priest dispatches a messenger to go and fetch Romeo so that, when Juliet awakes in the family burial crypt, he can rescue her and they can live happily ever after. Juliet's side of the plan works perfectly and she is placed in the crypt next to her cousin that Romeo killed a few days earlier, but the messenger never makes it to Romeo so when he hears of Juliet's death he doesn't know that she is not really dead. He rushes to the crypt to see his wife, kills a few more people, and then poisons himself. Juliet wakes up, sees her husband is dead, and plunges a dagger into her own chest. All this happens, only a few days after Romeo and Juliet first meet at the masked ball.

Not my idea of a great love story. Not my idea of a love story at all. Romeo and Juliet were not 'in love'; they hardly knew each other - their 'love' was based solely on their beauty.